Mothers' Side of Our Family Tree

The Lewis family, pioneers of eastern Tennessee and the Indiana territory.

This article is part 1 of a series about the travels of my family across the country and around the world.

The historical records these articles are based on were found in family Bible records, deeds, diaries, histories or court records of the places mentioned. I hope the interested readers and future generations of our family will appreciate the history of our Pioneer Ancestors.

The name Lewis is derived from the Norwegian LJODHHUS, the sounding house. The sounding house means a building which housed the men who took the depth of the sea.

The Lewis family, were originally French Huguenots and left France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Three bothers, Viz., William, Samuel and John, fled to England where William married Miss McClelland. Samuel made his residence in Wales, while John continued in England. General Robert and John were sons of Samuel and came to America about 1700.

Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Llandaff, Wales, March, 1713, and came to America in 1734. Family tradition tells us we are related to both Meriwether Lewis and Francis Lewis, altho0ugh I have been unable to trace the connection direct to them.

Nathan Lewis born in Wales about 1724 arrived at the Port of Baltimore about 1760 or 1765. He soon moved to Sullivan County, North Carolina which is now in Eastern Tennessee.

During the Revolutionary War Eastern Tennessee was harassed by Indians and the British, leaving little opportunity for military service.

In the summer of 1778 the Tenth Regiment was organized. Part of it went north to West Point, and part of its men was under Washington's direct command.

On the eleventh of November, 1834, the David and Nancy Lewis with their five children made their way to Grant County, Indiana. Their household goods were loaded in a two-horse wagon drawn by two bob-tailed horses, having just been brought from the east that fall.

They were seven days on the road to make the trip that today could take less than seven hours. The roads were bad and travel was slow as part of them would have to walk part of the time.

They traveled Northward by way of Connersville then to Muncie, IN. David was told the roads were so bad between Muncie and their destination that he could not get through. So he had to take the river road (a riverbed used for travel) through Granville.

It was on that road that they broke down, broke an axle to the wagon. It was about noon when it happened. They were close to another family who were taking the same river road traveling with a man named Wilson.